Riverside Names Kiggen Its First President

The Riverside Company announced the hiring of Jamie Kiggen as president of the private equity firm. Riverside co-CEOs Bela Szigethy and Stewart Kohl said Kiggen will play a key role on the management team and work with Riverside’s teams around the world to drive efficiency, enhance the portfolio, provide investment advice and support fundraising efforts.

A proven executive, Kiggen brings more than 25 years of experience, most recently as senior managing director at Blackstone, where he headed up its cleantech venture capital effort while also playing a senior technology investment role in the company’s private equity group. Prior to that, he was at AllianceBernstein, where he managed a global research and investment team focused on emerging sciences and technologies and launched a late-stage venture fund.

Earlier in his career, he was a top-ranked research analyst at DLJ, where he also served as director of Technology Research. Kiggen started his career as an entrepreneur in the software industry, and worked at McKinsey and Wellington before moving to Wall Street. He has a BA and an MBA from Harvard.

“Bringing in a president is a decision we’ve been mulling over for years, particularly as the demands of our positions continue to grow as we’ve emerged as the leading global private equity firm focused on the smaller end of the middle market,” said Kohl. “Jamie is an exceptional talent, and we’re confident he’ll help us take Riverside to its next phase of success.”

While Kiggen will be based in Riverside’s New York office, he will spend considerable time traveling between the firm’s 20 global offices and beyond to meet with investment professionals, managers, investors and other Riverside stakeholders.

The role of president at Riverside is designed to improve the firm’s overall performance. Kiggen’s responsibilities include chairing the Riverside Cabinet (composed of the co-CEOs, fund managers and the COO), working closely with senior investment executives, leading new product development, supporting the work of the Investor Relations team, assisting with human capital management, representing Riverside at select events and providing investment expertise on select transactions.

“The addition of Jamie adds a tremendous talent, in addition to a layer of sophistication for our organization,” said Szigethy. “The private equity industry is maturing and evolving. Like other leading institutional PE firms, Riverside needs to find ways to become even more efficient and effective. Jamie will do just this, thereby helping make us a better company and allowing Stewart, me and the entire Riverside leadership team to spend greater time focusing on potential and existing portfolio companies, helping to drive portfolio performance and visiting with key stakeholders, including investors, sellers, portfolio company managers, deal sources, the press and public policy makers.”